


Destined Diamonds

by digimaniac33



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-22
Updated: 2013-07-22
Packaged: 2017-12-21 00:04:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/893465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/digimaniac33/pseuds/digimaniac33
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Equius knew he and Vriska were destined to be moirails since he was three sweeps old.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Destined Diamonds

Equius knew he and Vriska were destined to be moirails since he was three sweeps old.

After all, it was quite obvious - his neighbor was another blueblood like himself, but just enough shades closer to green to be beneath him. She plainly required a STRONG hand to guide her away from her self-destructive habits. Such habits were obvious to Equius, who had a front seat ticket to every shrieked tantrum and outraged shout.

(He chose to ignore the already-growing piles of robotics around him and his incredible hypocrisy. His habits of destruction were clearly well in hand.)

Moreover, since they were already neighbors, Vriska would find it quite easy to move into his hive as they grew older, the traditional outcome for long-term moirails. Thus, he prepared himself for the inevitable.

When he heard a large crash signifying another classic Serket tantrum, he rushed to Trollian to begin their fated relationship.

\-- centaursTesticle [CT] began trolling arachnidsGrip [AG] \--

CT: D --> I order you to calm yourself.  
AG: What?  
AG: Ugh, Equius, I am NOT in the mood to deal with your hoof8eastshit.  
CT: D --> You will also cease that e%tremely foul language.  
AG: Shove off, I'm serious here!  
CT: D --> No. You will do as I command.  
AG: Come over here and make me, 8uddy!

Equius felt his brow start to drip with sweat. Such a forward proposition - did she also feel the wheel of fate pushing them together? Was this what destiny felt like?

CT: D --> Er  
CT: D --> I suppose that could be  
CT: D --> Arranged.  
CT: D --> Oh dear. Suddenly I need a towel.  
AG: Ew, grooooooooss!  
AG: Leave me alone, you weirdo.

\-- arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling centaursTesticle [CT] \--

Equius stared at the screen. That had... not quite gone as planned.

* * *

As his first attempt had apparently failed, Equius decided to switch tactics. Trollian was too impersonal for building such an important relationship. He would have to go and speak with her in person in order to get everything properly moving.

He took his chance the following night, when he knew Vriska would be home. He spruced himself up with Aurthour's help, intent on making the best impression that he could, and then he strolled over to her hive. He knocked on her door imperiously, and soon enough Vriska answered it.

"What do you want?" Vriska had smudges of oil on her face and a wrench in her hand. "If it's not completely important, I don't wanna hear it. And guess what, nothing you have to say is important!" She started to shut the door in his face, but Equius blocked it with his hand.

She jumped out of the way as her door was pushed off its hinges into her hive. Equius felt the sweat starting. "Sorry."

"Damn right you're sorry! How am I supposed to keep creeps like you out of my hive now?" Vriska scowled. "Look, tell me what you want and then go away, I'm in the middle of some pretty serious business here."

"I... um..." Equius realized he'd completely forgotten to prepare a topic of conversation. The seconds stretched on as he wracked his mind for something to talk about while Vriska grew more and more impatient. Finally, she snapped.

"Thanks for wasting my time, fuckwad! Now get out of here so I can get back to work!" She reached for the door, forgetting it was gone. When her hand swiped empty air, she glared at Equius and twirled away, stomping back into her hive.

Equius realized something. "Wait! What are you working on?"

She stopped just as she was nearly out of sight and turned back to him. "What do you care?"

He thought through his words. "If it were something I could help with, I wouldn't mind lending a hand." Vriska scrutinized him, her left eye piercing through him.

"You wanna help, huh?" She thought about it for a few seconds. "What the hell, why not. Come on in, you could probably do the stuff I don't wanna do." She turned and walked further in. Equius followed after propping up her door in the hole he'd created.

After a few flights of stairs and several twisted corridors, Equius found himself in a room open to the cliffside between his hive and Vriska's. Large pieces of metal were scattered all over the place, and Vriska sat with a hunk of wires and metal in her lap, wrenching another piece onto the mess.

"Here, get all this metal into the right shape, wouldja?" She gestured vaguely at some blueprints that were scattered around the floor, along with metal scraps, various tools, and inexplicably plenty of four-sided dice. Equius navigated the room carefully until he arrived at the first set of blueprints. He quickly analyzed them and began working.

They worked in relative silence for some time, Equius losing himself in the easy rhythm of working. Vriska fussed with and swore at the weird metal lump in her hands before tightening a final bolt. Then, she stood and stretched. When she looked around, she realized Equius had completed most of the doomsday device himself while she'd been fiddling with the control panel. "Holy shit, Equius! I didn't mean you had to build the whole thing!"

Equius, who'd been joining together two sections of the machine, looked up. "Oh, um..." He'd actually forgotten that he'd come to Vriska's hive for a reason. The joy of working on such a large and complex machine had won him over completely.

Vriska examined his work, surprised at how he'd done more in several hours than she could do in ten nights. "Not half bad, I guess. Maybe you're not so bad after all."

Equius smiled, flutterbugs filling his entire body.

* * *

Their relationship rolled quite happily along. By Equius's calculations, they could officially announce their moiraillegiance to their friends within the sweep, with Vriska moving in the sweep after that. That would give them plenty of time to manage each other's concupiscent quadrants before the drones arrived. Yes, everything was going according to plan.

The hurried Trollian message late into the day was therefore an even bigger surprise than it would have normally been.

\-- arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling centaursTesticle [CT] \--

AG: equiiis  
AG: geto verr to my hoive r8 nooooow

\-- arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling centaursTesticle [CT] \--

His bloodpusher jumped into his throat. Something terrible had happened, but what? Had her wild FLARPing ways finally caught up with her? Equius's legs propelled him out of his hive and across the cliff to Vriska's while his mind raced through the possibilities. The sun was just beginning to burn as he found shelter in the shadow of her hive.

When he arrived on her doorstep, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Cautiously, he opened the door, but no enemies waited beyond to ambush him. He moved upward towards Vriska's personal rooms, watching for hurried movements or blood trails along the way. He came to her respiteblock and stopped short.

Vriska lay in a pool of her own blood, her left arm lying several feet away from her body. Equius checked for any signs of life, and after he was certain she was still alive, he carefully gathered her up, trying to avoid injuring her body further. As he carried her back towards his own hive, he noticed her left eye was also gone. Her eightfold vision would likely be gone with it.

He returned to his hive with Vriska in his arms, utilizing every piece of shade along the way to protect his charge. Upon his return, he bore Vriska to his robotics room, ordering Aurthour to move ahead to clear a table for his work, and then prepare the extra recuperacoon. If he wished to save his fated moirail's life, he would have to act quickly now and keep her close at hand for the next several days.

Equius laid Vriska down on the table with her left side towards him. He studied the wound carefully, determining the extent of the damage and what he would require to fix her. When he had taken as much time as he dared, he began to work.

* * *

He kept Vriska in the spare recuperacoon with extra-strength sopor for the first few nights to help her sleeping body heal itself without extra agitation. He'd been unable to save the eye, but the robotic arm he'd grafted to her skin would theoretically function quite well (and he'd added a few extra things to it, in preparation for the future). However, sleeping in the stronger sopor would be dangerous after too long, and so he weaned her off the stuff, allowing her to finally wake up.

When she did, she blinked and looked blurrily at him. "... Equius?" She sounded surprised, like she hadn't called for him herself.

"Yes, it's me, Vriska. You're safe," Equius said, hardly believing the words coming out of his mouth. He could feel it - this was the day they would finally formalize their moiraillegiance.

"Shit... why the hell am I in your recuperacoon, hooves-for-brains? And why won't my left eye work properly?" Vriska blinked a few more times, then glared at Equius suspiciously. "Did you do something to me, Equius? Because I will raze your hive to the ground if you even looked at me weird!"

Equius considered laying a calming hand on hers, but decided that was much too forward. "No, Vriska. I found you in your hive, passed out in a pool of your own blood. I brought you here so I could help you.

This honest statement was answered with a blank stare. "Help me. Riiiiiiiight. And what's in it for you, then?"

Equius paused. He could make his intentions clear, but Vriska would likely reject him. She would want to approach him first - she was such a prideful troll, after all. "Nothing much at all. Perhaps you will simply owe me a favor to be repaid sometime in the future."

"Bluh. I don't like mysterious favors. Or being in debt." Vriska sulked in the recuperacoon. "Look, just let me get in the ablution chamber real quick so I can clean off and go home and stop bothering you."

Her use of lowblood vernacular caused Equius's lip to twist. "Please, Vriska, a highborn troll such as yourself should really avoid such low terms."

She looked at him incredulously. "You want me to call it a bathroom? That's so stuffy, though, and it makes no sense!"

"It makes perfect sense to a wellbred troll like you or I."

"Suuuuuuuure, whatever you want, Equius. Just let me get clean and go home." She tried to climb out of the recuperacoon, but her new arm caught her attention. "Whoa, what the hell is this piece of shit? Did you kidnap me to do some crazy robot experiment?"

"No," Equius explained, "I found you with your left arm and eye destroyed. I was unable to save your eye, but I was able to successfully attach a robotic arm to your nerves so you could use it in place of your missing one."

"Huh." Vriska tried moving and flexing her new robotic hand. "I gueeeeeeeess that was a pretty decent thing for you to do." Such a phrase was the closest Vriska ever got to gratitude. "Does it have any cool features on it, like a rocket launcher? That would make for a real awesome FLARP surprise!" She laughed brashly.

"No rocket launchers, or any other weapons. It's just an arm." Equius refrained from mentioning the externally-based controls he'd left embedded in the circuitry. If everything went well, she would never know about it. "You will need to stay here for another night or two so I can be certain it's working properly."

"Ugh, two more days in this craptastic recuperacoon? Geez, why didn't you just leave me to die?" Vriska flopped back into the sopor. After a bit of time, she looked up to see Equius still staring. "What the hell, Equius! Get out of my face so I can get some sleep!"

"All right." Equius stood and left. Vriska was obviously still building up to a suggestion for moiraillegiance. Perhaps saving her from the brink of death was too bold, and she needed to assuage her wounded pride. There was still time.

* * *

The next two nights were more of the same, with Equius checking Vriska's arm for any signs of infection or rejection and Vriska complaining the whole while. She submitted to Equius's ministrations with a bare minimum of fuss on the last night he needed to keep her close. To Equius, that meant she was likely to cement their pale relationship, a day he'd been looking forward to for sweeps. As he worked, he explained how to keep the arm in peak condition.

"You should oil it after washing, as well as every evening when you wake up. Avoid sandstorms and dusty roads as much as possible, though I suppose that should be simple with the lack of traveling you undertake." At that, Vriska turned her head to face him in indignation.

"I travel plenty! What do you know about traveling anyway, you barely ever leave your hive!"

He met her glare coolly. "While I'm sure your FLARPing campaigns are quite exciting, you would certainly never find yourself in a place like the desert."

"Maybe I would!" she shouted. "Maybe I visit the desert all the time! Fuck, maybe I'll go over and visit Kanaya in her stupid desert hive right now! It's only evening, I could probably make it there and back in plenty of time!"

Equius's bloodpusher skipped a beat, though he didn't know why. "Kanaya? Who is Kanaya?"

"Why the fuck should I tell you?" With that flippant reply and a flip of her hair, Vriska returned to ignoring Equius as she'd been doing before he'd incited her wrath.

He continued working, but his mind refused to stay focused. Silence kept in the room until Vriska finally spoke again.

"Kanaya's just my moirail, okay? She's a fussy busybody jadeblood who lives pretty fucking far away so we don't get to see each other much, and she's practically diurnal so we don't talk much either, but she's mine."

His bloodpusher stopped. Vriska's words smashed his dreams, his hopes, his entire life as he'd planned it from the age of three sweeps as he heard his crazy neighbor yell and shriek. He didn't even realize he'd twisted his wrench in half until Vriska shouted at him again. "Equius! Shit, what the hell is wrong with you today?"

"Sorry," he murmured, and excused himself to get another wrench. He quickly finished his work and left Vriska to escort herself out. When she was gone, he smashed every half-finished robot in his hive, shouting and screaming his rage. His blood rushed in his head, causing his vision to narrow until all he could see was the robots he was destined to never complete, just as he was destined to lose the most perfect moirail he could ever find.

* * *

Life went on. After his initial tantrum (which Aurthour had steered clear of), he kept control of his muscles. He no longer trolled Vriska, and since she never trolled him, it was obvious that whatever relationship he'd thought they had was all completely in his mind.

As he thought of Vriska and her mysterious jadeblooded moirail, though, his frustration grew again, and this time he had no robots to take his anger out on. He stalked the halls of his hive with ever-increasing ferocity, until one night when Aurthour politely suggested he take his energy outside.

Remembering Vriska's quip about his sedentary lifestyle, he agreed quickly. He decided to take a bow and a quiver of arrows into the forest. Perhaps practicing his archery would calm him down.

He set out just as the sun dipped below the horizon, the sky just dark enough to avoid being painful. He walked far, trying to find someplace that wouldn't lead him to think of the spidertroll. Once he felt he'd gone far enough, he began hunting for prey. The forest was always full of unsuspecting beasts and lesser trolls, which would prove as excellent targets for him to practice on.

Bow in hand and quiver on back, Equius walked through the forest, his footsteps as quiet as he could manage. His STRONG legs made such a task difficult, so it was a stroke of luck that he heard a branch snapping behind him. He quickly turned and blocked with the bow as a tiny body barreled into him.

The bow blocked a set of claws, claws that could probably cut through the wood of an ordinary bow. However, Equius had his bows reinforced in an attempt to counteract his overpowering strength, and so it held the sharp claws away from his face.

Flat on his back in a forest far from home, Equius looked destiny in the eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> I've always kinda wanted to write a pre-SGRUB Equius/Vriska thing, where they had a childhood moiraillegiance that didn't work out. They do kinda act like exes in the comic a little, at least to me.


End file.
